


Caveman In Shining Armour

by hazeflxme



Category: Buzzfeed The Try Guys (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, The Try Guys Try Not To Die Alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 14:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20155003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazeflxme/pseuds/hazeflxme
Summary: With a rather scary thought that Zach could fall, Eugene follows the lower path by the river towards the tall rocks where Zach is, careful to stay out of his view. Just as he nearly reaches where Zach stands, a panicked scream releases into the forest: with his heart in his mouth, Eugene sprints forwards.





	Caveman In Shining Armour

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys so this is my first ever work on ao3 and my first proper fan fiction (we are absolutely discounting the 500 word wattpad masterpieces from when I was 11) so it probably won’t be that good oops! There are a few things that I have picked up on that could probably be improved in the future so ill just warn you now!  
1) The speech formatting is very weird, although, it does fit the feel of the story.  
2) The speech itself is not that true to the characters, as I have only recently been getting back into this fandom + am on a weeks holiday without WiFi so have no reference  
3) I am British so there might be some phrases that seem odd sorry!  
4) My tenses are absolutely whack sorry! It’s something I’ve always struggled with (though I will point out, I have purposely included present tense thoughts)  
5) I wasn’t sure where the plot is going and it was written in many sittings so it doesn’t flow as smoothly in some areas as I got the hang of my ideas
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading, I’m so excited to post this!

“Fuck you Ned! Fuck You!”  
“Fuck you too Eugene!”

Zach gulped. He wasn’t looking forward to this: even the childish excitement of his two friends wouldn’t make him feel more prepared for a night in the wilderness. Oh god, he was going to die, this was actually going to kill him. He’d never get to see Eugene’s pretty face again- and- oh god, what would his parents do? It would break them, he couldn’t do that to them-

An arm slithered around his body, startling him, and he looked up to his left to see Keith smiling down at him fondly,  
“Calm down Zach, yeah? It’s gonna be fine, we’ll all be here in the morning, it’s only one night. I believe in you.”  
Zach’s head was still spinning as he gazed up at Keith, but his stomach’s churning was becoming less nauseating and his chest’s heaving became more regular. Finally, he was able to take a shaky breath, and steadied his expression.  
“Ok, ok, ok... You’re right Keith: it’s gonna be fine. I believe in you too. We’ll get through this. I’ll be seeing you all tomorrow. Yes. Yes I will.”  
Zach’s words were clearly more of a way to clear his head, rather than a way of conversing and he knew that Keith wasn’t fooled by it, he’d known Zach long enough to recognise his hyperventilation easy enough.  
“Alright. You sure about that?”  
The corners of Keith’s mouth began to curve upwards and suddenly Zach didn’t feel like the air was suffocating him anymore. A grin found its way to his face and he nodded sharply in response. Keith squeezed his waist, and the two said their goodbyes before trapsing off into the wilderness in different directions, their moods vastly increased.

Of course, that mood boost was really only temporary and as Zach wandered between the swaying trees he considered what a mess this was that he had gotten himself into. What was it that he needed to do first?  
“Shelter. Shelter, okay. Some branches, that’s what I need.”  
He slung his bag against the tree, muttering to himself between shallow breaths as his stomach began churning again. Zach hated this already and it hadn’t even been ten minutes.  
“I bet Eugene’s already caught and cooked half a dozen fish, and what am I doing? Feeling sick for no bloody reason. Oh to hell, I need a shit.”  
Zach didn’t often get panic attacks like these, but when he did, they were terrible. He felt so pathetic that he couldn’t even get his brain to function, never mind actually do all the things he needed to do. Why did it have to be him?

Not too far away, Zach wasn’t too far off his estimate about Eugene who stood proudly looking at the relatively robust structure in front of him, wiping his hands on his pants. A bandana that suspiciously looked like his shirt was wrapped around his head and a heap of red plaid could be seen a few meters away. The Korean grinned and slid off his beige jeans, letting them join the pile- if he was doing cavemen things why not go all the way. He leant back against a tree and thought about what to do next, but didn’t have to wait long, as a rumble sounded in his stomach. Leaping up he grabbed a nearby stick, sharpened it with his knife and marched down towards the river.  
“Time to spear a fucking fish.”

Luckily it didn’t take Zach long to do his business, and he trudged back up the hill with determination to do at least one of the tasks set out. And to be fair to him, after an hour of struggling he did manage to produce a flimsy pile of wood that just about fit the defenition of a shelter. Zach was quite proud of it, if he said so himself, now it was just for the bedding. Zach glanced around, a frown making it’s way onto his face, where were all the grasses?  
...By A River. Zach was nowhere near a river.  
“Uuuuuugghhh!!” He flopped onto the ground. How stupid! Now he would have to go and trek to a river. Though, he’d be able to get some water, and he’d have to do that anyway. He slung his tiny backpack of provisions on his back and set out on what must have been the 7th slow trudge of the day.

— — — —

After about half an hour, he finally found the river, his memory of where it had been wasn’t quite as on point as he had anticipated. It was very fast flowing, the whites of the rapids crashing continually over soaked rocks and Zach gulped. He prayed to whatever the hell was up there that he would not fall into that because it definitely would mean death.  
He pulled his shoes and socks off, then grabbed the water purifier from his pack and scrambled down towards the rocks. Standing by the edge, he took a deep breath then gingerly clambered across the slimy surfaces until he reached a point where he could stretch down and collect the water. He sipped the water, quenching a thirst he didn’t even realize he had and smiled to himself. That was actually surprisingly easy, now he just had to gather some grasses, get back to his shelter and find a way to start a fire then probably eat a few bugs. This would be easy peasy. So with a newfound confidence he began to scramble carelessly back towards the back. He missed the worried glance from a certain pair of brown eyes downstream.

Eugene had been first watching Zach distractedly, his friend’s uncoordinated limbs struggling to get across the river, but nonetheless managing it. He’d never tell Zach of course, but it made his heart swell with pride seeing him facing his fears. Eugene is about to turn away and try to catch another fish as he sees Zach stand up uncharacteristically confidently. Eugene’s brow furrows involuntarily; that was rather odd. Not that Zach shouldn’t be confident of course, but he’s very uncoordinated and standing on some slippy rocks above a raging river, which isn’t exactly a great combo.  
With a rather scary thought that Zach could fall, Eugene follows the lower path by the river towards the tall rocks where Zach is, careful to stay out of his view. Just as he nearly reaches where Zach is, a panicked scream releases into the forest: with his heart in his mouth, Eugene sprints forwards.

All Zach could feel his heart pounding in his chest, his vision blurry and all his senses heightened as fear overcame him. This is how it ends huh? What a shitty way to go. He felt like crying and cursing Ned-fucking-eagle-scout-Fulmer for deciding on this but he didn’t even feel as if he was in his body. Time seemed to have have slowed down and all he wanted was to just let it all go and feel his body hit the water, smashing into the rocks in a slow, painful death. 

He felt his body hit something and was suddenly no longer depersonalised. Great. now he gets to feel his death from the front seat, how fun. Wait. Whatever he had landed on, it was... soft? And it wasn’t crashing him into rocks. He shot up in shock, opening his eyes to look around.  
“Eu-Eugene?”  
His heart was somehow still accelerating and he felt like he was going to puke and cry and laugh all at the same time seeing that wonderful, familiar face, with its classic charming smirk embedded upon it.  
“Have a nice fall princess?”  
Eugene was laughing through his words, and Zach was ready to respond defensively and hopefully wittily, hiding the fact that Eugene’s imitated flirting always got to him. But when he tried to speak, his mouth just opened and closed like a goldfish, the only sound he was able to produce a few stuttered syllables, his emotions painting themselves onto his overwhelmed face.  
Eugene’s smirk fell and he jolted upwards, suddenly really worried, this must have really scared Zach  
“Hey Zach. Hey, heyyy, you okay there bud?”  
Of course, Zach was not fine and as with what always happens when people acknowledge your rollercoaster emotions, he broke down into uncontrollable sobs.  
A look of panic stretched onto Eugene’s face, not only with his inability to understand and comfort the depth of human emotion, but with the realisation that Zach. Poor, sweet, innocent Zachary, was crying and it absolutely broke the elder’s heart.  
“Heyyyy, heyyyy calm down. You’re okay, you’re okay. I caught you, you’re okay now, everything’s gonna be fine.”  
Eugene had no idea what on earth to do, completely at a loss. He sat up further and snaked an arm around the back of Zach’s waist and rubbed his back comfortingly- Eugene hated hugs, but people sometimes did that, he thought and besides, hugging Zach wasn’t something that he entirely disliked.  
“I-I-I, Eugene-“  
Zach’s skinny frame shook in fear, even though there was no longer anything to be afraid of. Water was building up at the corners of his eyes and his glasses were crooked upon his face as his mind went numb repeating those same three seconds in an endless loop.  
“Fuck it.” Muttered Eugene, pulling Zach to his chest and squeezing him. The boy’s breath hitched in shock at the gesture, and buried his face into the collarbone of his friend. Eugene kept rubbing delicate circles with his hands, and was strangely not repulsed by the sniffling man on his bare skin, in fact, having Zach in his arms was oddly calming. The smaller seemed to also have that that idea and after the third roller coaster of the day, he felt the cart slowing to a stop.  
Eventually, the two were left leaning against each other in the calm of the sunlit glade, and even the river seemed to have calmed down. They were both reveling in  
the lack of space between them, to much of their surprise, neither wanting to pull apart. 

Thoughts were racing through Zach’s brain at the fact that, Eugene-I-hate-hugs-Lee-Yang was actually in an embrace with him and then he sniffed, a spray of substance hitting Eugene on the shoulder, absolutely mortifying him.  
“Oh my god- Eugene! I’m so so sorry, and oh, you have like no clothes on either, it’s literally on your skin. I bet I’ve been drooling and sniffing on you the whole goddamn time, haven’t I? I’m such an idiot, I literally couldn’t purify water without embarrassing my self, how do you even put up with me? I’m literally-“  
“Zach can you just shut up yeah? I couldn’t give a shit about a tiny bit of your snot in on my shoulder. I’m more interested in the fact that you just fell on me from 10ft in the air and have been basically crying on me for about 5 minutes. How are you bud?”  
Eugene’s words were sharp and sobering, and Zach who was now awkwardly sat on Eugene’s lap, felt reality crashing down on him. What on earth had happened?? At least he didn’t feel like he was going to puke anymore though.  
“Uh, I’m okay, I think. Yeah, I’m okay now.”  
He tried to send a convincing smile to Eugene, who was able to read him like a book, as usual and raised his eyebrows in a way that let Zach know that Eugene knew that he his organs were definitely still floating around his body in all the wrong places but nonetheless jumped up and stuck out a toned hand towards Zach.  
“Well in that case, you can come and catch some fish with me, don’t want the princess to starve do we?”  
A knowing smirk was plastered across Eugene’s face, as Zach tried to suppress his grimace whilst his friend yanked him to his feet and began marching downstream to a certainly more safe area of the river. Zach was not a stupid princess, he could fend for himself, Eugene was just an ass.

The two continued jabbing at fish with pointy sticks for a while, and it was clear that Zach was absolutely hopeless at it. Every time he saw one, he would push for it but his weak arms would simply have all the power drained from them by the raging river, spear swiping nowhere near where the fish had been, as his reaction times weren’t great either. It didn’t help that Eugene had already caught three massive fish with seemingly ease, as he was spending a goddamn long time watching Zach struggle hopelessly, getting further agitated with every minute that passed.  
Eugene didn’t actually realise that Zach was aware that he was watching him, he just thought that Zach’s annoyance was really cute. It was endearing to see him get so stuck into it, even with questionable intentions, as usually Zach liked to stray away from things involving physical activity. And well, most of all he was just glad that Zach’s breakdown by the rocks had been more from the shock than emotional trauma: dealing with other people’s emotional vulnerability was one of the worst situations imaginable to Eugene, second only to dealing with his own.  
Eugene turned away to look at the river again and saw a fish darting downstream. With reflexes like Venus flytrap, he smashed down into the water, stabbing the poor fish in the center. Bingo. Zach was gonna be pissed.

Zach certainly was pissed. He hadn’t managed to catch one, yet Eugene had four? He wondered what on Earth had made god hate him so much, he sucked at EVERYTHING. When Eugene suggested that they called it a day, he began to protest before realising that the longer they stayed there the more he was probably going to make a fool of himself, so begrudgingly agreed to return to Eugene’s camp.  
When they returned, Eugene cleared a bed of leaves for Zach to put the fish on. The shorter was infuriatingly impressed at how nice the area was, and at how nicely sized Eugene’s shelter was compared to his mismatch of wood which he was now feeling rather deflated about.  
“So whereabouts is your camp?” Eugene questioned,  
“It’s uh, over there, or um that way,” Zach mumbled, his arm pointing losely, shit, he hadn’t thought about getting back to his camp, “ah well, I’m pretty sure, I came from over there? Maybe?”  
Eugene had doubled over laughing at this point, and Zach didn’t even have the energy to be mad at himself anymore, he was just embarrassed at his stupidity; then they would have to post a recount of what happened on YouTube, and he was just going to look like an idiot.  
“I can’t believe- you don’t- remember- where your camp is!” Eugene was spluttering through his laughter, Zach’s adorableness was going to be the death of him someday, “That’s hilarious!- I really am- a knight in- shining armor huh!”  
“Shut up Eugene. And actually, you’re a caveman in shining armour..”  
“Don’t be annoyed! It’s cute!”  
Zach was unsure whether Eugene’s revelation of him being a ‘princess’ or his unmeaningful flirting annoyed him more, but he was certainly fuming. Which of course really did not help his case because he just looked like a gawky 14-year-old who had just a card game to his mother, and Eugene really wanted squish his cheeks, as a mother probably would have done. 

“You can just stay with me yanno.”  
The air stiffened as an unnatural tension swept over them; Eugene had sent Zach one of his signature smiles, accompanied by the puppy dog eyes Zach could never say no too, but it wasn’t a question- it was a statement. Zach stared at the taller man, a determined stare burning holes through his body; every time that he received one he felt like shrinking down and letting Eugene overpower him but at the same time stand tall as an equal comrade, side by side. But no matter which decision he took, Eugene would always get his way.  
“I-I mean sure? But isn’t the shelter, uh, kinda small?”  
“Oh no that won’t be a problem.”  
Zach’s knees felt weak at the implication, and was once again gawping like a fish under Eugene’s influence, which he prayed was not as obvious as it felt. Zach pursed his lips, he wasn’t going to let Eugene’s fake flirting dominate him, he would die from embarrassment with unreciprocated feelings.  
“Anyway come on, we need to make a fire before Ned, your clumsiness won’t stop me winning this.”  
Zach suddenly woke up from his trance, noticing that Eugene’s gaze had softened. Before he marched off, to go collect some sticks, or something. Zach scratched his head in bewilderment: to have that much confidence.

— — — — 

It was an hour later when the two found themselves sat by a small pile of wood, next to a much larger one and a peculiar shaped stick that had a piece of string fashioned like a bow and arrow. Zach watched with minor interest as Eugene wielded the instrument and attempted to explain the process of starting the fire. Zach tried to be interested but really he was tired and shaken, besides although he thought that the method was rather odd, he didn’t feel as though he was any the place to comment after the days events as well as the fact that he definitely didn’t listen as much as he should have during the crash course.  
“And then it will hopefully light- Zach you didn’t listen to a word I just said did you?”  
Zach was yanked sharply back to reality at the mention of his name, but unusually for the situation, he didn’t immediately revert to a defensive high-pitched yelp of defensiveness or unwillingly have heat rise to his cheeks and instead slouched down and closed his eyes instead. “Sorry ‘gene, I’m tired and kinda confused, anyway, you’d probably do better without my help.”

Unbeknownst to the boy, above him Eugene was gazing down, his heart warm and a small smile plastered on the usually stony visage. Eugene always enjoyed looking at Zach, and he reveled in the moments like these and even if he was painfully straight, and single (which annoyed Eugene a lot as a perfectly good guy would literally drop everything for him-girls, man!), Eugene would always care for the cute little old man-boy that was his best friend. Sometimes the non-reciprocation would make him mad, especially on the days where Zach was complaining about another date that hadn’t gone well, but eventually he would always calm down to the realisation that no matter what happened they would still be best friends. And that was enough for Eugene.  
He sighed and looked away, not wanting to make it obvious he was staring and get back to the immediate task; although Eugene did love looking at Zach’s features, he would much prefer to enjoy the experience with him, to be laughing and joking, but he couldn’t blame him, really, the poor guy just had a near death experience, even if it meant they wouldn’t be able to wander to a clearing and watch the sunset together.  
He rubbed the stick against the string, determined to make a fire to warm Zach up, who although he hadn’t yet complained was definitely cold, because Zach was perpetually cold. At first, nothing noticeable happened in the dimming light other than his hands warming, but that could be for a variety of reasons. He tried again. And again. And again. And then finally, a spark appears, to which Eugene roars in delight.  
“A spark. Zachary! I made a spark!”  
Zach, who was half-asleep on the uncomfortable forest floor, was awakened, and he opened one eye, to see what was going on. Eugene’s face was lit up with glee, and Zach assumed he must be getting somewhere with the fire. He opened his mouth to speak, letting out a yawn and his words a hoarse whisper.  
“Well- yawn- done ‘Gene. ‘Tis better than I could’ve done.”  
His quiet words motivated Eugene far more than he would ever like to admit, and he was determined to get a fire going before Zach inevitably fell asleep. He quickly returned to the odd contraption with a rejuvenated bout of energy, and with every passing try, he got closer and closer to making a fire until finally, in the setting sun, a fire licked the dry wood, bringing warmth to the two friends.  
Eugene quickly started building up the fire from the pile of wood nearby and moved the DIY fish smoker they had fashioned over the top. Zach rubbed his eyes as he sat up groggily, smiling at Eugene’s accomplishment and suddenly not feeling too bothered that he had been damsel in distress rescued by a knight. He sent a grin to his friend who immediately returned it, and squeezed him into his side; the gesture was unexpected, but not unwanted, besides, affectionate Eugene didn’t turn up very often and who was Zach to turn him away?  
The two friends sat back against the woodland floor, settling into a muted conversation as they waited for the fish to cook, smells of the it having awoken both Zach and his hunger.

A while later the two boys were noticeably closer by the dying fire and with their stomachs satisfied, the sun had gone down to let the moon rise in the clear night sky, which Eugene took as an opportunity to go starry-eyed and try explain the constellations to a slightly confused Zachary.  
“Look, as much as I am enamoured by your attempts to explain the stars, my brain is swimming and it’s going in one ear and out the other. Can we just go to sleep, maybe?”  
Eugene smiles back at him, shrugging a yeah. They wordlessly got up and started doing a partial organisation of the camp, stamping out the fire and chucking stuff into heaps. Once the camp looked mildly decent they boys gave up and headed towards the small shelter with their bright orange blankets from the pack.  
In the dark, the place where their fire had been was no longer visible and the two boys were really just stumbling around in the dark, hoping their shoes wouldn’t melt in the ashes. They were actually doing rather well, until Zach trips over a branch, that is.  
From the corner of his eye, Eugene could see the boy flailing towards the ground, and before he has time to sigh, his arms are wrapped round the slender waist and pulling the boy into his chest. In the close embrace, their hearts were pounding for a multitude of reasons as they both stared down at the smoking ground below them.  
“Close call there, Zachary.”  
Zach only gulped in reply, he’d had one scare too many today and just wanted to lie down and fall asleep, preferably in the strong arms that were currently holding him. They stood there in the moonlight as Eugene waited for Zach’s breathing to calm before he carefully lead the boy who was seemingly on autopilot towards the small shelter.  
Once reaching it they both laid down under the blankets and to Eugene’s surprise, Zach immediately closed the gap between them, curling into his chest.  
The elder’s breath hitched and suddenly he was extremely aware of his dangling limbs, unsure of where to put them. He awkwardly wrapped one arm around Zach’s waist and leant his head on the other. By the time his eyes wandered back to the boy, he was completely passed out; a smile danced over the Asian-American’s lips and he decided that he could deal with the awkwardness of limbs entwining for a chance to have a moment like this again. He let his eyes linger on Zach for a while longer before letting his eyes droop shut into the most peaceful sleep he’d had in a long time.

— — — —

The sun was beaming down in rays between the wide leaves of the canopy above, illuminating the peaceful smiles of the two boys on the forest floor. A light breeze rustled through the wood and the smaller branches swayed, whispering a quiet song. From the heights of those trees, a young bird fluttered down and picked at the leaves on the floor of the two boys’ camp.  
Inside the small shelter, Eugene was the first to stir, his eyes opening groggily to an unfamiliar surrounding, leaving him surprised at the feeling a body in front of him and an odd nagging from where his hips contacted the ground. But the memories came rushing back in a second, to remember that he was in fact lying on a bed of reeds with Zach curled up next to him. The morning was peaceful, and Eugene felt the same, the birds’ chirps and the rustling leaves were a lullaby to his ears.  
Eugene didn’t even realise that he had drifted off again until Zach woke up next to him with such a jump that he knocked down 4 of the branches and left the rest to teeter precariously with a silent warning that one movement could burn the house down.  
“Calm down dude, I’d rather this not become a pile of sticks on top of me.”  
Eugene groaned as he sat up to look at his smaller friend, whacking his head on a stick hanging from a place it shouldn’t have been. Zach was shrunk as far away from Eugene as possible in the tiny stIck-den, which was really not far at all, and had a horrified look on his face.  
“Don’t be so terrified man, anyway, you were the one that fell asleep on me.”  
Eugene rolled his eyes at the brunettes expression, as the other sputtered in an confused protest.  
“But-but you hate stuff like that! And you let me fall asleep on you? That’s so embarrassing! I can’t believe I did that!”  
Eugene lifted his eyebrows at Zach’s words, rather amused, whereas on the other hand Zach felt like digging a hole to Australia and falling down it. He must have looked like such an idiot! Why does he have to make such a fool of himself all the time?  
“For the record, I don’t really care and it was kinda cute. Did you know you nearly fell on the stamped out fire? I had to become your caveman in shining armor again.”  
Eugene laughed as Zach’s face twisted with emotion, unsure whether to be annoyed, embarrassed or flustered; internally, the elder was also cursing himself for the blatant flirting, but he’d been doing it this whole time and Zach hadn’t noticed yet so he supposed it must have been fine. He would need to be more careful in the future.  
“Ok but- that’s not- ugh. I hate you Eugene.”  
“Really? Guess next time I’ll have to leave you to burn your face off and break all your bones then.”  
To an outsider, the exchange would seem harsh and hateful but in reality, that was far from the truth. Eugene stood up and held out a hand for Zach to take, who in turn yanked an unsuspecting Eugene down with him, knocking over the rest of the now dilapidated shelter into a pile on top of them; with laughter and smiles all around, the two boys really couldn’t have been happier.

— — — —

“How far back is it now?”  
“Soon! Stop being so damn impatient!”  
“I’m not impatient. I just hate pointlessly whacking a path through the forest because Eugene doesn’t know where he’s going!”  
“You’re behind me! I’m doing all the work!”  
Zach was complaining (as usual) as his best friend attempted to clear a path in order to return back to where they had parked just over 24 hours ago. He felt as though they had been walking for hours and hours, and with more near-death experiences than good memories from the forest, he would decidedly rather be anywhere but there.  
The shrubbery they were fighting their way through was tangled and long: vines meters long stretched and wove across the floor, wild flowers poking their heads through a mess of green, bees buzzing with every movement startling and nettles the height of a tall child sprung up all around them. The day was hot and humid, sweat sticking the shirts of the two boys to their urban-dwelling bodies and making Eugene look like a model walking right out of a shoot. Zach reasoned with himself that if only he could actually stare at Eugene right now it might not be so bad, but instead he was stuck needing to be hyper aware of every single plant in a 5m meter radius or else he would be face planting the ground in 2 seconds flat.

“Look! Over there! A track!”  
Eugene suddenly had a huge burst of energy and started thrashing his “gladiator sword” rapidly ahead, moving faster than Zach guessed his old man body would be able to run. After being stood dazed for a couple seconds, Zach realized that he was going to lose Eugene if he didn’t get a move on so quickly tried to follow the path Eugene was creating. Unlike Eugene, Zach’s bout of energy lasted all of 3 seconds before his favorite T-Shirt got snagged on a thorn, jolting him back harshly. Cursing, he turned back and tried to untangle himself from the shrubbery before feeling a violent yank on one of his arms. Zach looked up angrily, whatever had pulled him had admittedly freed him but also ripped his favorite t-shirt which was no longer available to purchase.  
“Eugene! Stop! You just ripped my shirt! What the hell’s wrong with you!?”  
“Come on Zach! Stop loitering! We gotta get back to camp or we’ll lose points!”  
Before he even had time to protest, Eugene yanked at his arm again and tugged him down the overgrown path. Zach was struggling to stay on his feet at the speed and knew it would be only seconds until he fell-  
Suddenly a pair of strong arms hoisted Zach up, slinging him over the owners shoulder as he was in the midst of falling to the ground. The body below him began to run down the quad bike track before Zach even had time to think. He had absolutely no idea where he was, only being able to see backwards, and, where on earth was Euge-? Oh, this was Eugene. Zach swallowed his embarrassment at literally being as gangly as a rag doll and feeling himself start to slip backwards at the increasing speed, too terrified to do anything other than cling on for dear life as the man below him broke out into a sprint.  
A few seconds later, Zach could see the the canopy above him start to thin and the sound of voices come closer. They must have been getting closer to the car park then, which Zach decided was definitely a good thing as soon he’d be getting home, plus they would have won the game, and Zach didn’t often win.

“Finally! Here comes the damsel in distress and her caveman in shining armour! That took you a while!”  
Or perhaps they hadn’t won.

Zach’s felt his feet lowered to the ground before Eugene spun him around and squeezed him to his chest, ready to spout a retort at the grinning Ned.  
“At least I got the best damsel in distress possible.”  
Eugene had given up the subtlety at this point, damning the consequences- he loved they boy and he was going to show everyone that. Zach was worth it  
And well, Zach was very dazed and confused, but after the 2 days in the woods, Eugene’s arms felt rather safe so he snuggled further into them, willing to brace the teasing Ned was sure to give him. Eugene was worth it.

This was the beginning of something brilliant for the two boys, and all those around them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, I would love for you to leave a kudo/comment!
> 
> Also would anybody like a sequel, as there would definitely be room for one!
> 
> -Viola Ambrosius xx


End file.
